A Cabinet minister has been forced to fly back to the UK from a major trade
mission to the Far East so he can take part in Monday’s Commons vote on
press standards.

David Jones, the Welsh Secretary, was recalled from Japan amid growing concerns that the Conservatives will lose a crunch vote in Parliament.

MPs will vote on Monday on plans to enable the courts to impose "exemplary damages" on newspapers if they do not sign up to a new independent regulator set up by royal charter.

Conservative ministers have warned that an unprecedented alliance between the Liberal Democrats and Labour to enshrine regulation of newspapers in legislation would open the door to "state licensing of the press".

David Cameron is urging MPs to support his plan for a Royal Charter to oversee a new regulator.

Labour and the Lib Dems are expected to propose a more draconian scheme.

Mr Jones’ return from the Far East is a sign of just how concerned senior Tories are that they will lose the vote.

He arrived in Japan on Wednesday at the start of a trade mission to the Far East.

He was originally due to arrive back in the UK after the last leg of his visit in Hong Kong on 24 March.

Mr Jones said: “A free press is absolutely crucial to our society and I wholeheartedly support the prime minister on the measures he is taking to ensure we have a system of press regulation that will actually work.

"So I will be completing all of my meetings with Hitachi in Tokyo, before returning back to the UK in time for this important vote."

A Wales Office spokeswoman said discussions were taking place on whether he would resume the mission at a later date.

Mr Cameron today said that the bitter parliamentary wrangling over regulation of the press must be brought to an end.

The Prime Minister, who pulled out of cross-party talks with Labour and the Liberal Democrats yesterday, said he was not prepared to go on seeing the Government's legislative programme "hijacked" by the issue.

Speaking in Brussels at the end of the EU summit, he welcomed apparent moves by the other parties to back away from "full-on legislation" on the implementation of the Leveson Report recommendations.

"We can't go on with a situation where bill after bill of the Government's legislative programme is potentially hijacked or contaminated with motions and amendments that are about something that is completely different. That's why I think it is right to bring this to a conclusion," Mr Cameron said.

"It seems to me that the other parties are moving away from a sort of full-on legislation on Leveson and accepting that a royal charter is the right way forward.

"That's good if we can get on with what I've got on the table and pass the legislative clauses that I have put down. That would be, I think, real progress. But it is right to bring this to a head."

David Cameron's official spokesman said the Prime Minister's proposed text for a Royal Charter will be published later today.

If Parliament approves the Conservative amendments on Monday, it is understood Mr Cameron will take it as an endorsement of his approach and press ahead with the enactment of the Charter.

However, the spokesman said a Charter will require the agreement of the Privy Council, whose current president is Mr Clegg, which some observers believe could give the Lib Dem leader an effective veto on the proposals.

Asked how Mr Cameron hoped to secure Mr Clegg's agreement at that stage, having walked away from efforts to forge cross-party consensus yesterday, the PM's spokesman said: "The right thing to do is to go to the House to have a vote on the legislation that the Prime Minister's approach requires and to see if that carries the day.

"Parliament is sovereign. If Parliament supports the Prime Minister's approach, it will be for others - if they choose to do so - to explain why they are not enabling a workable solution to go forward."

The spokesman dismissed suggestions that the differences on Leveson posed a threat to the Coalition, saying it was "not the first time that coalition parties have taken a different approach on important but specific issues", but insisting that they remain united on the core policy priorities of repairing the economy, reforming public services and bolstering competitiveness.